


Life Is Like A Boat

by Luna12



Category: Bleach
Genre: Academy Era, Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Crushes, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Shinou Shinigami Academy, Sick Character, Teen Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna12/pseuds/Luna12
Summary: When Rukia gets sick with a bad cold, Renji's willing to cut class, scale walls, and brew overly strong tea, to pay her a visit.  A little slice of life during their Academy Days.Be prepared for some rough housing kidou, practical jokes, swearing, and quiet fluffy moments.  One-Shot & Canon Compliant.  RenRuki.





	Life Is Like A Boat

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Between Tides](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19375927) by [polynya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/polynya/pseuds/polynya). 

> My beta reader and muse, polynya, deserves so much credit for this. Her stories and friendship have given me so much joy, and just a few lines from her "Between Tides" story had me awake at 4 am with this story dreamed out half complete. Her head-canon has become mine, and the fan community is a better place with her in it.

For the 974th time in the last hour, Rukia sincerely wished kaidou could treat the common cold. Sadly, whether it was the Living World or Soul Society, there was no quick fix to relieve her misery.

Rukia was not prone to insomnia, (unlike a certain red haired idiot she knew), but last night’s sleep evaded her as she sniffled, coughed, and threw off the scratchy school issue blankets in an escalating mixture of frustration and misery.Damn it, she just wanted to breathe the tiniest bit through her nose!Just when she would fall into a fitful sleep, she would gasp awake as her body convinced itself she was suffocating. 

She would have forced herself up to attend classes today if it wasn’t for two reasons.Firstly, she had just passed a bunch of exams.She had a modicum of breathing room because as much as she hated it here at Shin’ou, and even though she was disliked by her instructors and most students, she wasn’t at risk of failing out.She was top of her class in kidou, performing decently well at hohou, and was average enough in purely academic subjects such as “The Metaphysics of Souls and the Reincarnation Cycle”. Her biggest weaknesses were her hakuda and zanjutsu coursework.Today was supposed to be nothing but long sessions of her small, scrappy frame being launched into practice mats.So no, she wasn't enough of a masochist to submit her throbbing head to more pounding.

The open window directly against her bed teased a light breeze, probably one of the last days of the season she could keep it open comfortably.Her eyes closed as she prepared for Nap Attempt Number 42. 

A sudden thump outside her window had her eyes reluctantly opening.

“Ow.Ow.Fuck.” 

Wait, what?

Before her sluggish, fevered brain could process, there was a long, lanky, muscular arm reaching out from the bottom of her window, where it flailed blindly before seizing a grip on her arm. 

A brief adrenaline surge had her instantly putting her feeble hakuda to use.With her free arm, she hooked her elbow around her assailant's arm.With leverage to her advantage, she fueled her muscles with whatever reiatsu she could spare and half hauled, half threw the perpetrator into the room."Binding spell the first! Sai!!"

"Damn it, Rukia!It's me!" mumbled the bound man, his face stuck awkwardly into the floorboards, his arms behind his back in rigid imprisonment.

"Renji?!" she croaked. Her voice was a hoarse, weak mockery of her usual bravado.Rukia blinked dumbly as her foggy, pounding head tried to catch up.Bright red hair?Check.Stupidly long body?Check.Familiar reiatsu (now that she remembered to verify)?Check. 

Her limbs felt like wet noodles.She released her kidou and Renji massaged the feeling back into his formerly pinned arms. 

Rukia scowled at him before launching into her perfectly honed Scolding An Idiot mode. "You moron!What the hell?!I thought you were some demented pervert!”

"Heard you were sick," came the simple reply, as if that naturally explained skipping class, scaling the girl's dormitory wall to violate a dozen major Rules, then vertically scrambling up four stories to check on a friend.

Renji gave his freed arms another stretch, the shoulder joints making a popping sound. "Your bakudo binds are _hell_," he grumbled. 

Rukia crossed her arms, a smirk tugging her lips."You deserved it."

A few errant ivy leaves and twigs were caught in his hair and kosode.The climb (and subsequent attack) had dislodged both his kosode and shitagi to the point that his pecs were on clear display.Renji had started the Academy as a lanky, awkwardly tall teen.The rigours of training were starting to fill out his frame with well toned musculature, and Rukia found her cheeks flushing.Damn it, this was Renji.There was no need to ogle him like a pathetic school girl, even if she was a school girl.Instead she focused on his eyebrows, or lack thereof.Last week he had blown his left one off in kidou class.Again.Ridiculous. 

Renji's brown eyes studied her intently with concern, and Rukia felt herself prickle with insecurity.She was definitely not at her best right now.Her bitch of a roommate had made enough snide remarks.The full height wall mirror in their room (a magnificent luxury Rukia still had trouble getting used to) had confirmed it; darkened circles under her eyes, a pasty face washed out of any healthy color with the exception of a painfully red, irritated nose.

Renji pulled over the standard issue chair from the desk to her bedside."Feeling like shit, huh?"

"Death would be a welcome alternative," she deadpanned as she forced her aching body back into the covers. "You should save yourself.Don't blame me if you catch this crap."

Renji nodded in sympathy, but made no move to spare himself from possible plague contamination. "Want some water, or tea?I brought both."He untied a hand knotted square of cloth that he had turned into a makeshift rucksack. Within the cloth lay one metal thermos and one bamboo water tube.

Rukia sighed, the deep, deep sigh of being doomed to have an exhaustively thoughtful, hopelessly incurable worrywart of a childhood buddy.He was being so incredibly sweet and sincere and damnit, all her defenses were disintegrating."Yes." Her voice sounded pitiful, but she was too miserable to care.Her throat was a bed of red hot knives.Pride be damned.

The smile that split his face made her stomach flutter.She purposely ignored the sensation.It was surely a dumb side effect of being sick, and was not at all a dumb crush.No.Certainly not. 

He poured the tea into the convertible lid-cup with pride and passed it to her."Kira let me borrow his thermos," he explained unnecessarily.The craftsmanship reeked of nobility.The sleek black outer shell had an intricate yet simple silver inlay of atea leaf.She eyed the number of strings hanging off the side of the container warily.The student mess provided unlimited tea packets.The nobler students snubbed their noses at it, but they were a tremendous upgrade from anything available in the lower districts of Rukongai.During their first disorienting week of Shin'ou, both Renji and Rukia were like crazed hoarders, stuffing their pockets and sleeves full of tea bags after each meal.It looked like Renji had used more than twenty bags for a vessel that could clearly contain no more than 4 servings.

Rukia couldn't smell it, but even with her dulled senses it was bracingly strong.It was so over brewed and bitter that it could be mistaken for paint thinner.Even so, it was nostalgically comforting to drink Renji's horrible tea (how he always managed to ruin tea amazed her) and it scalded away the throbbing rawness in her throat.His smile cracked even wider when she motioned for a refill.

Renji chatted away amicably, inherently understanding that speaking was painful for her.He even pulled out a crumpled book from his pocket and enthusiastically began fan gushing over it. 

"So it starts off with the whole world going to shit in an open woven basket, right?Too many fat slobs in power ruining it for everyone else and then infighting. There's only a handful of Lords who actually care about ruling well, but mostly it's just dick measuring power grabs.Then there's these warrior monks who are separate, trying to keep the peace. They're blocking the roads to the capital, but they can only do so much to keep villages from being plundered and fields put to the torch.It's chock full of battle strategies, gorilla warfare, backstabbing politics...."

Rukia blinked vapidly.This did nothing to deter Renji's puppy-like enthusiasm.

"Want to hear a bit?There's maybe a hundred characters, but I can help you keep 'em straight while I read the best parts."

"No, that's not --"

Renji plowed ahead, picking a dog eared page he was nearly reciting by heart. 

Storytelling was one of their favorite past times back in Inuzuri.Every aspect of life was a struggle, from stealing clean water, to defending a run down squat for shelter, to just making sure they didn't freeze to death in winter… but one thing Inuzuri couldn't take was their collective imagination.Fujimaru, Mameji, Kosaburou, Renji, and herself would gather around and tell each other stories.Life sucked and death lurked around every corner, but for those fleeting moments by the campfire they could pretend to be well fed chefs with double chins in the Seireitei, treasure-seeking pirates on the open seas, yokai-fighting kitsune tricksters, or simply beloved children cared for by actual parents.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, listening to Renji read a boring historical novel was soothing rather than grating.The pounding of her head receded to a dull ache, carried away by the familiar tones of his voice.For the first time since arriving at Shinoureijutsuin, Rukia felt...at home. 

_Maybe it's because I'm physically miserable,_ she tried to convince herself and failed.Times together with Renji were so much rarer these days, with his stupid separate Advanced Class and their mutually rigorous schedules.Even when they had a chance to be in the same room, Renji was usually surrounded by a gaggle of new friends.He was absurdly likeable and popular, an inverse of her surly, introverted nature. 

Rukia was half asleep, lulled by Renji's cascading voice, when her fevered body rebelled and shivered.She tried to burrow deeper into the blankets.The sudden movement didn't go unnoticed.Renji stopped mid sentence.His long right arm reached out, and with the back of his hand he gently pushed aside her hair to feel her forehead. 

"Shit, Ru. You're burning up."

In smooth motions he was pouring the remaining cold water onto the square cloth he'd brought, deftly folding it into a cold compress. 

Renji leaned in to settle the compress on her forehead.Rukia felt her breath hitch.His close presence was a strange mixture, comforting and unsettling.He was in her personal space when physically vulnerable, a privilege she only ever granted to him.The sensation was familiar from the old days and yet so foreign since they started Shin'ou.

It was not fair that Renji could unsettle her so easily.This much of a power imbalance would not do.Especially since he usually was goading her over being in the Advanced Class. 

"Renji…?" She began, not needing much effort to make her voice small and vulnerable.

"Yeah?"

"You have a newt in your hair."

Renji crossed his arms defiantly, his dark brown eyes gleaming with mirth.“I’m not falling for it.”

Once, years ago, there_ had_ been a newt stuck in his hair.It had not only shat on his head, but then crawled inside his clothes as he screamed and flailed.Ever since, it was a running joke between their crew, and a chance to try and get him to flinch.The problem was that sometimes there really _was_ something in his hair.Rukia didn't always lie. 'Newt' had become synonymous with any critter.Living in the slums meant no end to bed bugs, spiders, cockroaches, lice, fleas, and other pests making a home in his spiky locks.So half the game was trying to figure out if Rukia was bullshitting him. 

“Well, it may not be a newt.” She took a long moment to study his hair and tilt her head seriously from her reclined position on the pillow.“I’m hardly an expert at the various vermin that live in all the woodbine ivy you crawled through.Remember that brown and red bug with the uncountable number of squirmy legs that runs fast?”Rukia wiggled her fingers rapidly to mimic said bug legs.“You know, the one that bit Mameji and then he got a welt the size of his fist?Yours kinda looks like that one.”

Renji’s left eye, the one with half burnt-off eyebrows, twitched.“Rukia, if you’re shitting me…” he warned.

"Hmm, well there is definitely something from outside that doesn't belong in your hair, but you don't have to believe me. It's very entertaining for me to watch it make a new home."

From her perspective, the maroon tinged ivy leaf happily bobbed a little bow.

Rukia held out her empty cup, her eyes never leaving the top of Renji's head."May I have more, Mister Bug Head?"

Renji's fingers twitched.He wanted to check, but this was a game of wills. 

With a clenched jaw, Renji stoically moved to refill her cup. 

At that moment, her fever addled brain hatched a Brilliant Plan.A chance to up their game as never before.Despite being in the Advanced Class, Renji was shit at kidou. 

Rukia, however, was most decidedly not.

In theory, a low powered, yet finessly handled binding could feel like some ghostly, light touch,instead of impenetrable ropes locking limbs into place. 

With a very subtle movement under her blanket, Rukia mentally recited the second Bakudo.Without any verbal incantation or even the power words, there was little energy involved.It would likely fizzle out.Her head pounded and she was starting to doubt this joke would be worth the cost but then…

Rukia felt the spell take shape and aimed for his ponytail, driving the intent with her mind.She wanted the slightest tug… rather like a newt crawling on one's head, perhaps?

It worked. The ponytail shifted.The modified kidou held a brief second before dissipating like a popped soap bubble.

Renji yelped.Immediately he was on his feet in front of the mirror, batting at his hair and frantically undoing the ponytail.Large fingers combed through the messy mass, only to remove a small twig and two autumn tinged leaves.

Rukia was clutching her sides, shaking with laughter that was a mix of coughing and chuckling.

Renji glared murder at her while bringing the offending plant remnants to her face.

"A newt, huh?"

Rukia forced herself to stop laughing, carefully snatching a leaf and pretending to examine it."Oh. Hmm.I guess my eyesight must be affected by this stupid cold, too."

Before he could retort, they heard voices outside her door.

Damnit, he had to go before her roommate ratted Renji out. 

Rukia was almost regretting her prank.Her hand on his briefly squeezed, a million words of gratitude, tenderness, heartache and more swirling in her gut.

"Thanks, Renji" she whispered, her voice even hoarser from the previous laughter, but the sincerity still came through.

Renji gave her his biggest, self assured grin, as if the previous prank was entirely his own idea to cheer her up.Yet there was a softness in his eyes she had trouble recognizing, and she suddenly found it harder to breathe.

He gave her a quick squeeze back before scrambling his gangley limbs out the window.The tips of his long fingers over the sill were the only part visible when the door opened, but then they quickly vanished.

Rukia leaned back into her pillow, equally ignoring her stuck up roommate under the guise of Renji's loaned novel.She gently twirled the remaining ivy leaf in her free hand before falling into a blessedly healing sleep.


End file.
